Four years since the Great Recession officially ended, women, hit hardest by the sharpest economic crisis in generations, still lag behind in the recovery, according to a report by the California Budget Project.

Women are on even shakier ground, the report continued, because of state budget cuts that further undermine the economic security of women and their families.

They have suffered as programs like CalWORKS and Supplemental Security Income and public education sector jobs have been gutted even as the cost of living continues to rise, according to the report, released this week during International Women’s Month.

And even as women make strides in the government, military and business, men are now returning to work at a higher rate than woman and continue to earn $1 for every 80 cents paid to women in California. The pay gap is wider in other states and for women of color.

“I wish I could say this is new information,” said Ethel Long-Scott, executive director of the Oakland-based Women’s Economic Agenda Project, founded 30 years ago.

The report puts the failure to address structural issues that make it harder for women to get out of poverty “in our face,” she said. “Our job is, what are we going to do differently?”

The report, funded by the Women’s Foundation of California, painted a grim picture for women in the Golden State:

The median annual earnings among women in California declined from $32,973 in 2006 to $30,938 in 2011.

Women have been disproportionately affected by cuts in recent years to Medi-Cal, an important source of affordable health care coverage for women and children.

Women account for nearly two-thirds of the more than 300,000 student drop in community college enrollment since 2007-08.

Annual funding for subsidized child care and preschool programs, totaling more than $900 million since 2007-08, resulted in the elimination of more than 110,000 child care and preschool slots.

That has ripple effects long into a woman’s life.

Deep cuts to the SSI programs, which remain 10 percent below poverty, have disproportionately affected women, who are more likely to be poorer than men in old age because they earn less in their lifetime and spend more time outside the paid workforce. As a result, they have lower lifetime earnings, less retirement income and higher rates of poverty in old age.

More in News

An Anaheim tagging crew member accused of stabbing a 12-year-old rival to death testified on Monday that he acted in self-defense and denied claims by a prosecutor that he yelled “Die! Die! Die!” as he delivered the fatal blows.